Tigers put it all on the line to claim Homecoming victory
After giving up a combined 100 points the last two weeks the Fleetwood Tigers knew they had to get a little tougher up front, and a little more efficient on defense.
They got tired of sending the kickoff return team back out there so often.
“We really went back to the basics,” said senior lineman Joey Svoboda. “Pretty simple, nothing crazy. We just wanted to dominate, and that’s what we did.”
The Tigers haven’t claimed a lot of victories over the years with dominating line play but they got one Saturday, owning the line of scrimmage in a 26-9 Berks Football League Section 2 victory over Twin Valley on Homecoming.
“That six inches of dirt in between the trenches, we owned that all night,” said senior two-way end Will Ryan. “You’ve got to give it to our guys.”
The Tigers (1-2, 3-3) had a big defensive challenge in front of them trying to stop the potent Raiders (2-1, 4-2), who feature two of the league’s top play-makers in running back Dominic Caruso and split end Trey Freeman.
They’re each the best at their respective positions in program history, with records left and right. They didn’t add much to them Saturday. The Tigers swarmed all over them. They limited Caruso to 34 yards on 14 carries over the final three quarters. Freeman had six catches but the longest was 11 yards, and that came late in the game, with Fleetwood up 10. He had been averaging 21.4 yards per catch.
“They’ve got great guys like Caruso and Freeman, so we really had to contain ’em,” said Svoboda, a defensive lineman, “and I think we did a good job controlling the line of scrimmage and letting our linebackers make the plays. We knew what was gonna come, we just did a good job executing.”
Ryan was a force at defensive end, with a pair of tackles for loss, two hurries and a tipped past. Linebackers Gavin Morris, Gage Moyer and Dylan Fickes swarmed to the ball.
Caruso broke off a key 16-yard, third-down run on Twin Valley’s first possession and went 28 yards on a sweep late in the first quarter to set up a short field goal and the Raiders’ only lead at 3-0.
After that he saw precious little daylight.
“I’m thrilled with the defense,” said Tigers coach Steve Beatty. “Last year we couldn’t stop a lick. Bob (Kutzler, the defensive coordinator) has done a great job with the defense, and the message this week was effort. They played with effort and he called a good game and that worked out for us.”
Senior safety Tanner Maddocks intercepted a pair of second-half passes to keep Twin Valley at bay. He also came up fast on the run game, and on the short pass routes, and made a huge hit to take down Caruso for a big loss on a pass play.
Maddocks’ second interception, with 6 1/2 minutes left, set up the clinching score, his 4-yard TD run with 2:42 to go.
Before that Morris gashed the Twin Valley defense for 116 yards on 24 carries, two of them ending up in the end zone. His 11-yard TD run answered the Raiders’ only touchdown and gave the Tigers a 19-9 lead with 7:59 remaining.
Morris was never hit in the backfield as the guys up front — Svoboda, Hunter Leister, Noah Yorkawitch, Blake Moyer, Conner Letterman and Ryan, the tight end — controlled things.
“We thought we won the trenches,” Beatty said. “They really stepped up. They got the message this week. We felt like that Weiser game (a 52-38 loss two weeks ago) got away from us, and we had to make one up. And I think they took that to heart.”
“I feel deep down in my heart we should’ve beaten Conrad Weiser, too,” said Ryan. “We are a better team and we showed that here tonight. We took (Twin Valley) off its high horse, coming in 4-1, and we took it to ’em.”
The Raiders get Wyomissing next, but they’ve got some winnable games after that and still can make the district playoffs.
The Tigers aren’t out of the Class 5A picture yet, either. Saturday’s win was a boost and gives them a realistic chance for a winning season.
“We’ve still got life,” Beatty said.
“We brought the energy (tonight),” Ryan said. “Homecoming, great crowd, all of our friends here. A beautiful atmosphere, a beautiful night for football. You can’t get any better than that. We were hyped and ready to go.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Twin Valley | 3 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 9 |
| Fleetwood | 0 | 13 | 0 | 13 | 26 |
Scoring summary
| Team | Player | Play | From | PAT Player | Extra Point |
| Twin Valley | Puccino | 22 FG | |||
| Fleetwood | Morris | 4 run | Kick failed | ||
| Fleetwood | Musitano | 15 pass | Maddocks | Maddocks | Kick |
| Twin Valley | Myers | 1 run | Kick failed | ||
| Fleetwood | Morris | 11 run | Kick failed | ||
| Fleetwood | Maddocks | 3 run | Maddocks | kick | |
Team statistics
| Twin Valley | Fleetwood | |
| First downs | 9 | 15 |
| Rushes-yards | 32-90 | 41-199 |
| Passing yards | 27 | 77 |
| Total yards | 117 | 276 |
| Passes | 8-24-2 | 6-10-0 |
| Fumbles-lost | 1-0 | 3-3 |
| Punts-average | 6-38.8 | 2-22.5 |
| Penalties-yards | 7-74 | 4-30 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Twin Valley: Caruso 21-85, Myers 5-8, Harris 3-4, Rose 1-(-3), Freeman 2-(-4).
Fleetwood: Morris 24-116, Moyer 5-52, Maddocks 8-21, Fickes 1-13.
PASSING
Twin Valley: Myers 8-24-2–27.
Fleetwood: Maddocks 6-9-0–77, Moyer 0-1-0–0.
RECEIVING
Twin Valley: Freeman 6-36, Johnson 1-(-4), Caruso 1-(-5).
Fleetwood: Musitano 4-63, Morris 1-12, Moyer 1-2.
INTERCEPTIONS
Fleetwood: Maddocks 2.
